FACT: Antidepressant drugs no better than placebos

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor of Health Impact News

The CBS news program “60 Minutes” has produced a story featuring Dr. Irving Kirsch’s research on placebos and antidepressant drugs. To anyone who believes that popular antidepressant drugs prescribed for depression have solid scientific evidence based on sound research, you owe it to yourself to invest 14 minutes of your time to watch this expose featuring interviews with Dr. Irving Kirsch, the associate director of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Michael Thase, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (a consultant to many of the drug companies and presenting the opposing view), Dr. Walter Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University’s Medical School, Dr. Tom Laughren, director of the FDA’s division of psychiatry products (defending the drugs), and Dr. Tim Kendall, a practicing psychiatrist and co-director of a commission that advises the National Health Service in Great Britain.

I have been covering this information for quite some time here at Health Impact News, particularly the work of Dr. Irving Kirsch, so none of this information was new to me. However, I was practically in shock after watching this incredible report by CBS News. What has dramatically changed in this discussion regarding whether or not antidepressant drugs are better than placebos or not, is that Dr. Kirsch has gone beyond studying the published research on this subject, and has now secured all the unpublished research done on these antidepressants through the Freedom of Information Act, and the results are even more shocking. The cat is out of the bag, to use the old cliche, and even those still defending the drugs are no longer denying the placebo effects at all, as this incredible report will show.